Texas town in just the wrong spot for just the wrong storm

By Carol Christian |
April 17, 2014
| Updated: May 15, 2014 11:59am

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Photo By Montgomery County Police Reporter photos

Damage from a surprise tornado is seen in Lovelady, Texas, April 13, 2014.

Areas covered by the National Weather Service NEXRAD radar network. In gray-shaded areas, no radar in the system can detect anything below 10,000 feet above ground level under normal atmospheric conditions. Source: NOAA

A Doppler radar unit in the National Weather Service network. Photo: NOAA

The nation's radar network has a few spots where thunderstorms that are close to the ground will not be detected, according to the National Weather Service.

One of them includes the small East Texas town of Lovelady, where an April 13 tornado with 100-mph winds hit about 4:45 p.m. without warning.

These gaps in coverage appear where Doppler radar stations are relatively far apart, leaving some towns a long way from the radar.

Since radar beams project at a slight angle above horizontal, the beam goes higher as it gets farther from the radar unit, said Dan Reilly, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in League City.

Thus, bad weather can literally pass under the radar if the storm is low enough and far enough away.

"This was a very unusual storm, with a low top," Reilly said of the April 13 tornado. "As far as we can tell, the top of the storm was somewhere around 15,000 feet. A typical storm would be 40,000 to 50,000 feet."

News about the Lovelady tornado's impact was slow to be reported, partly because amateur photos and videos of damage posted online didn't match the radar record of what officially happened in the town of 700 about 100 miles north of Houston.

"Any time we miss a storm, we go back and look at it," Reilly said. "There wasn't much on the radar. It looked more like a shower."

That evening, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Blood told the Houston Chronicle that weather service crews would go to Lovelady April 14 to survey the damage.

Although Blood didn't know the strength of the tornado at that point, he said it damaged at least eight structures, including several mobile homes in the area.

One thing meteorologists look for in computer data, Reilly said, is indications of spin in a storm.

"These spinning storms are the ones that normally produce tornadoes," he said. "In this case, that spinning part of the storm was too low and the radar didn't have a good view of it."

While this scenario could occur again, another factor that sometimes gets overlooked, Reilly said, is the importance of Skywarn storm spotters.

"We rely not only on radar but people reporting information to us if they see a funnel," he said. "This is another good example of where spotter reports are so critical."

Each spring, the weather service conducts training for Skywarn storm spotter volunteers. Most of this year's training has been completed, but another session is planned for 10 a.m. June 7 in Crockett, about 15 miles north of Lovelady.

Other sessions will be held in the fall and again next spring, Reilly said.